Sunday Comics: Official Lore

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published August 31. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published August 28. Read more…

Gwent Delivers The Witcher 3‘s War-Weary Fatalism In Elegant Card Form

The Witcher 3 is one of this console generation’s best games. It might even be one of the best role-playing games ever made. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Gwent, its side-quest distraction turned standalone card game, is every bit as detailed, complex, and beautifully crafted. There’s a card in the game…

Sonic Mania Boss Pays Homage To Deceased Fan Hacker

Moto Bug is the first enemy you ever encounter in Sonic. Is the series’ Goomba, in other words, and there’s one in Sonic Mania named after a member of the Sonic hacking community who died a few years back. Named Jimmy after the late Polygon Jim, it appears in the Lava Reef Zone as part…

Absolver‘s Trendiest Move Is Literally A Slap To The Face

As players have started populating the in-game world of Absolver and search for every move possible, one particular strike has proved both elusive and sought-after: a formless, direct, open-handed slap to the face. The Calbot is a simple move, one players have been referring to as “the slap.” In a game about technique and form,…

I’m really looking forward to Return of the Obra Dinn, the next game from Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope. The version at PAX West is much improved from the early demo you may have played, with a much more extensive “ship’s log” interface that lets you keep track of all the murder mysteries you have…

Here’s A Ton Of New Lore On Destiny 2’s Cabal

Destiny 2 doesn’t release until next week, but at least one Collector’s Edition was delivered early thanks to Amazon Canada. The $250 bundle is filled with art work and lots of different knick-knacks, including a special booklet filled with lore that Reddit user Canadian decided to upload and share with the internet. Bungie’s shooter MMO…

One day in, the SNES Classic at Nintendo’s PAX booth remains safe and secure. The controllers and information card have switched places since yesterday, however, indicating that someone opened the case and rearranged its contents. We will continue to keep you posted on this situation as it develops.

Finally, It’s A New Metroid

I got the new Metroid on Tuesday but waited two days to start it. I’d waited a long time for this, and I wanted the moment to be perfect. Metroid is my favorite video game series. Did I fall for these lonely sci-fi action-archeology games when I played the first one, as a 10-year-old boy…

Steam’s Haphazard Sex Games Policies Hit Another Game

Strangers in a Strange Land is a point-and-click adventure game starring Billy, a college student on vacation with his step family. It’s also about watching people bone and catching peep shows when you can. These scintillating and voyeuristic themes have the game caught in the middle of the latest tussle over porn games on Steam.…

The Weekend In Esports: League Summer Finals And More

It’s Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer, which means it’s also time for the League summer season to draw to a close. Immortals will be making the organization’s first-ever appearence in LCS finals where they will have the tough task of taking on veterans Team Solo Mid. It’ll be up to the newcomers…

Pro League Of Legends Team Says It’s Losing More Than $1.1 Million A Year

European esports organization H2K issued a letter yesterday to the League of Legends community, saying it will not continue to participate in the European League Championship Series unless Riot Games creates a better financial structure for teams. H2K, a team competing in today’s EU LCS playoffs, has been a part of the European region’s LCS since…

Songbringer‘s Randomized Take On Zelda Works Really Well

Songbringer, with its top-down overworld-wandering, dungeon-spelunking, and item-collecting, takes a lot of cues from classic Legend of Zelda games. I can only tell you so much about it, though, because your adventure will probably be pretty different from mine. When I first started playing the new PC action-adventure, which tells the story of a top-hat-wearing…

This Week In The Business: No Escaping PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

QUOTE | “Winning is the exception, and losing can be fun, and anything in between is an adventure, which sets PUBG apart entirely—and in a meaningful way—from almost any other competitive multiplayer game I’ve encountered.” – Tacoma and Gone Home developer Steve Gaynor loves PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds QUOTE | “What we’ve noticed during this generation is…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for going to the farmer’s market near your house for the first time, because that seems like a very modern long weekend thing to do. Also, video games. I’m determined to finish Dishonored 2 before Death of the Outsider comes out. I started it again last weekend but didn’t get too far…

Dead Rising 4 Comes To PS4 In December With New Bits

Dead Rising 4 loses the “Xbox One console exclusive” label on December 5. The full game is coming to PlayStation 4 as Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package, including all downloadable content and a brand new “Capcom Heroes” game mode. It’s like a game of the year edition, only without being anyone’s game of the…

Here’s How Ubisoft Convinced Nintendo To Let Mario Use Guns

So much about Kingdom Battle is surprising, but the thing that I still can’t get over is that in this game, Mario shoots his enemies with a gun. This is Nintendo’s mascot we’re talking about, and the game wasn’t developed internally. How the hell did anyone get Miyamoto to sign off on that? Very carefully,…

The Internet Reacts To Sonic Forces’ Persona 5 Costume

Maybe you forgot that Atlus, the creators of Persona, are now owned by Sega, the makers of Sonic. Well, the internet got a terrible reminder of this fact yesterday, and it’s hilarious. Sonic Forces, the next 3D Sonic game, will have a costume that dresses custom original characters as the protagonist of Persona 5. The…